Actress Valerie Harper Has Brain Cancer

By JACKIE WILLIS

March 06, 2013

The Mary Tyler Moore Show star Valerie Harper revealed that she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

The 73-year-old actress, who played Rhoda Morgenstern on Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off, revealed to People magazine that she learnt of the news earlier this year, Jan. 15, after a number of tests revealed she has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. According to People, this is "a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the brain."

Her doctor has given her three months to live. This is Harper's second bout with cancer, who also battled it in 2009. "I don't think of dying," she said of the diagnosis. "I think of being here now."